Embodiments disclosed herein relate to remittance systems. In particular, some embodiments relate to methods, apparatus, systems, means and computer program products for implementing a remittance system on the basis of an international payment card system.
Many individuals regularly send money to family or friends across international borders. The total annual volume of international person-to-person remittances is measured in the hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars (including transactions that involve U.S. dollars and transactions that do not involve U.S. dollars) and is increasing from year to year.
Formal commercial remittance channels are generally labor-intensive and expensive to use. Informal channels for remittances are also labor-intensive and may not provide adequate protection for the funds remitted. Many of the people who make or receive international remittances are not wealthy and can ill-afford the costs and risks presented by conventional remittance channels.
More generally, senders and recipients of remittances frequently find conventional remittance channels to be time-consuming and inconvenient. It is not unusual for the sender to be required to bring cash to a store operated by a remittance services provider (RSP). Accordingly, the sender is constrained to accommodate himself or herself to the store's operating hours, must carry cash on his or her person, and may have to wait in line or otherwise experience poor service at the RSP's store. The recipient also may be required to pick up the remitted funds at an RSP's store, thereby possibly suffering the same disadvantages and inconveniences that the sender was subject to.
International remittances also raise issues related to governmental security and anti-crime interests. In many countries, regulations are in place with respect to international transfers of funds, to aid in efforts to combat funding of terrorist groups and organized crime. There are also international initiatives in these areas. These types of regulations are generally referred to as “anti-money laundering” (AML) provisions, and typically require that financial institutions and RSPs “know your customer” (KYC). Compliance with KYC and AML regulations may place significant cost and administrative burdens on formal international remittance channels. Of course, these costs are passed on to the users of the remittance channels.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/836,984 (which has a common inventor herewith, and which is incorporated herein by reference), an international remittance system was proposed that is based on an international payment card system such as that operated by MasterCard International Inc. (the assignee hereof) and its member financial institutions. Aspects of the present disclosure extend the benefits of such a system to remittance recipients who do not have payment card accounts.
The present disclosure, in other aspects, addresses issues that may arise related to encouraging participation by payment card account issuing financial institutions in an international remittance system. In particular, the present disclosure proposes web-based software tools that make it convenient for participating financial institutions to perform administrative tasks involved in implementing policy decisions related to participation in such a remittance system.